


A Gift

by cosmic_llin



Category: Liveship Traders Trilogy - Robin Hobb, Rain Wilds Chronicles - Robin Hobb
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Genderqueer Character, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 19:59:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alise Kincarron is having a bad day.</p><p>A Yuletide Treat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Gift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [walkthegale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkthegale/gifts).



‘ _Everyone_ has to get married,’ Sophie Meldar told her, as if she was a fool not to know it. ‘And once you are you won’t be able to fill your hours with all these books full of dragon nonsense, Alise.’

‘It’s not nonsense!’ Alise protested, although she was only half-listening as she rummaged through the texts on a covered market stall. ‘I’m a scholar!’

‘My mother says married ladies can’t be scholars,’ Sophie said. ‘Come on, let’s go back and look at those fans, I think I want the blue one. I’m bored of looking for your boring book. I don’t think they have it after all.’

‘It’s not boring!’ said Alise. ‘That book might help me interpret the scroll I found the other week! It could be incredibly useful!’

‘Useful for what?’ said Sophie. ‘What are you going to do with it all once you’re married? My mother says in a few years when we’re grown up you’ll forget all about your studies. She says you just need to be distracted by a young man.’

‘I don’t _want_ to be distracted by a young man!’ said Alise, but, giving up on the book she sought, she let Sophie lead her away from the market and down the street.

Sophie was a good sort really, and always defended Alise when the others teased her for her frizzy hair and strange ways, but the older they got, the less patience she seemed to have for Alise’s more outlandish ideas, and the more she wanted to talk about courting and marriage instead of talking about all sorts of things like they had used to.

‘You will want to,’ said Sophie. ‘When you’ve matured. You’ll grow to think of all this dragon stuff as childish. I mean, it is pretty childish, really - dragons? And Elderlings? The rest of us gave up such stupid fairy stories quite some time ago.’

‘They’re _not_ fairy stories!’ said Alise. ‘And you’re the one who’s stupid! Acting like you know everything - you don’t know anything!’

‘Well, I never!’ said Sophie, and she flounced a half-circle and headed down the street.

Alise watched Sophie stalk away. Just then, a fat raindrop landed on her nose.

For a moment Alise was tempted to walk home in the rain, but visions of what her mother and sisters would stay at the sight of what it would do to her hair stopped her. She looked after Sophie, but she was already a dot in the distance.

They had been walking as they talked, and for the first time Alise looked around to see where she was. She was on the corner of Rain Wild Street, outside a shop with large, clear glass windows - obviously expensive. She peered inside - it seemed to sell mostly wooden items - bowls and plates, small pieces of furniture. It looked a little intimidating - Alise looked around to see where else she might duck inside while the rain passed, but they were all either scary Rain Wilds shops that she shouldn’t go into, or high-class shops with snooty proprietors who might not take especially kindly to an already half-sodden girl whose hair was a mess at the best of times and whose face was freckled in spite of all her efforts. And she’d smudged her skirt too.

Alise looked back through the window of the wood shop, and suddenly noticed a face looking back at her. She jumped.

The woman had blended in with the wood at first - not just because of the colour of her skin and hair and eyes, but because she sat so still and quiet. But now she widened her eyes a little and smiled at Alise, beckoning her in.

Alise might have hesitated had the rain not been getting heavier. As it was she ducked inside the shop and stood, embarrassed and soggy, in the doorway.

‘I’m sorry!’ she said. ‘Thank you for letting me come in, I’ll try not to drip on everything...’

‘Not to worry,’ said the woman, and she brought Alise a thick, soft towel. Alise tried to gently squeeze the water from her hair so that it wouldn’t frizz up. Her feet squelched a little on the shining wooden floor but the shop’s owner seemed not to mind.

‘Here, sit down while you wait for the rain to stop,’ she said, indicating a beautifully-carved wooden chair.

‘Thank you,’ said Alise. ‘Um... I’m Alise Kincarron.’

‘Amber,’ said the woman. ‘Pleased to meet you. Are you supposed to be out on your own?’

‘Um...’ Alise looked down at her hands. ‘I was with my friend Sophie. Her big brother Sedric was chaperoning us but he wanted to get something and he was going to meet us in a bit, but Sophie and I had a fight and I don’t know where we were supposed to meet to go home...’

Suddenly the amount of trouble she might be in began to dawn on Alise. Young ladies didn’t wander the streets by themselves.

Amber smiled. ‘I’m sure they’ll come back for you,’ she said.

‘Maybe,’ said Alise, doubtfully. Her eyes began to fill with tears.

‘Would a gift cheer you up?’ suggested Amber.

‘Um...’ Alise knew all about how to respond to gifts from suitors, wanted and unwanted - that much her mother had drummed into her, in spite of the fact that she wouldn’t have any suitors for at least a year or two - but she had no idea what the etiquette was for when strange-but-friendly shopkeepers wanted to give you something.

‘If it helps, you can consider it a sample of my wares in case you consider a purchase in the future,’ said Amber, with a ghost of a smile.

‘All right...’ said Alise.

Amber brought forth a large bowl full of beads. They were all made of wood, of various colours and textures. Some of them were simple, smooth spheres, others were carved in pictures and patterns and shapes.

‘Choose any one you like,’ said Amber.

Alise looked through the beads, running her fingers through them as if the bowl was full of water. They were all beautiful, but none of them seemed to say _take me home_. In the end she settled for one with an intricately-carved striped pattern.

‘Are you sure?’ asked Amber.

‘Yes,’ said Alise.

‘Take it, then,’ said Amber, and as Alise picked it up, Amber tipped the basket a little and the beads rolled to reveal one that Alise hadn’t seen before.

It was a perfectly round bead, just like the others, but the carving made it look like a dragon. A sleeping dragon, curling around itself into a sphere. The detail was incredible. She could have counted the scales that ran from its forehead down its back to the tip of its tail. Even in sleep it looked as if it was smiling slightly, and she could see the power in its strong limbs and sharp claws. It might have been the most beautiful thing Alise had ever seen.

‘Oh...’ she breathed, but then she looked at the striped bead already in her hand. Why had she chosen so hastily?

‘It’s all right,’ said Amber. ‘I’ll take the other back. You have this one.’

‘Are you sure?’

Amber nodded. ‘Easy as anything.’ She handed the bead to Alise, who took it and closed her palm around it.

‘But it’s not like that for most things. You can’t take back what you’ve said and done,’ said Alise glumly. ‘Even if you really want to.’

‘It’s true. You can’t unmake your choices,’ said Amber, and there was something wistful in her eyes as she said it. ‘But you can choose again, and sometimes that’s just as good. Or even better, because the next time you choose you’ve learned something.’

Alise didn’t answer, rolling the dragon bead thoughtfully between her fingers.

‘Sophie says I have to get married, and once I’m married I can’t study dragons any more,’ she said at last.

‘Does she,’ said Amber neutrally.

‘I don’t see why I can’t do both,’ said Alise. ‘It’s not that I don’t want to fall in love and get married, but I don’t want that to be everything that I do. Do you think it’s possible to have both? Can you have someone to love and still do everything else you want to do?’

‘I think anything’s possible,’ said Amber. ‘But making your own path is always more difficult than following the one already laid out. And sometimes there are obstacles - and options - you hadn’t considered.’

Alise sighed. ‘That doesn’t really help.’

‘Not a lot does,’ said Amber, with a grin. ‘But look - the rain’s stopping. And isn’t that your friend?’

It was indeed Sophie, hovering outside looking contrite, while Sedric held an umbrella for her and winked at Alise in a friendly fashion.

‘Oh!’ said Alise. ‘I’d better go! Thank you - for the bead, and for letting me in from the rain.’

‘You're most welcome,’ said Amber.

* * *

A long time later they met again, in a place far away. But they recognised one another still, and when Alise saw Amber she remembered that day, and smiled.


End file.
